"The climate is ripe for video game companies and investors to make money on empathy-building games for two reasons: parents want them, and they align with an identified market trend towards greater empathy"

Cameron Parsons's insight:

In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, public outcry against violent video games reached new highs. "Although proof linking violent video game play to real life violence is controversial," says Jessica Berlinski on Forbes.com, "there is proof that video games are good platforms for building prosocial skills." It's simply a question of building and offering parents right-type of game for their children: Those building SEL skills.

The base of the pyramid (BoP) is the foundation upon which our global economy is built. But today it is weak. Current market practices and inefficiencies have left the four billion people at the BoP earning less than $10 per day without access to stable jobs, safe housing, formal education, [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

The business world is changing rapidly, and so is the consumer base. Often overlooked by traditional corporations are the 4 billion poorest individuals who form the base of the pyramid (BoP). However, with normal consumption patterns constantly in flux, companies across the country and around the globe would be wise to engage this untapped and underserved resource.

For many years in the Middle East, the harsh weather, the oil wealth, male dominance of the public space, as well as a traditional patriarchal society made it difficult—or unnecessary—for women to enter the business world. But some were able to break through and thrive in that sector. Arab Women [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

Women in the Middle East have long been working to break down the cultural barriers that have kept them from entering the male-dominated business world. Innovative and creative, female entrepreneurs are now making strides. However, the struggle is far from over.

Eighteen years after launching the South India AIDS Action Program (SIAAP), Shyamala Natarajan reached a crossroads. Positioned as a civil society movement, the organization had succeeded in proving their model. The more difficult, adaptive work of achieving a shift in policy had been completed, and the organization began to focus [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

Social entrepreneurs are necessarily wedded to their ideas; however, there comes a time in the life of every innovator when it is time to bring that relationship to an end—to embark on a new idea, another organization, a different stage in life.

How do these individuals ensure that their original brainchild not only survives, but thrives, in their absence? Whether you are a budding social entrepreneur or a seasoned Wall Street veteran, you need to read these tips from leading Ashoka Fellows in India.

If the ecosystem of social change were an orchestra, social enterprise would be an amped-up brass section drowning out all the other instruments and any semblance of nuance. Everywhere you turn now, the talk is about revenue models and about doing well while doing good. In our efforts to better [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

Ashoka fellows around the world are scaling the impact of the work by making their ideas and programs accessible to all. Why? When you give away your work, you’re facilitating the idea’s spread and replication, and that means more rapid social impact.

VideoCharly Kleissner is a former tech entrepreneur and early pioneer of impact investing. He moved from Austria to Silicon Valley in the mid 1980s and worked for Hewlett Packard, as well as alongside Steve Jobs. Two of the start-ups that Charly worked for were successfully sold, and one (Ariba) went [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

"What the more enlightened realize – like some Ashoka Fellows – is that we are at an inflection point in humanity in how we organize ourselves. The old model of competition, top-down, maximizing at the expense of all else, owning every piece of the puzzle – is being replaced by something more cooperative. And that effects how we conceive of scale and impact too."

The unsatisfactory condition of global fishery resources and the challenges governments face in reversing this tendency are hotly debated topics among resource management groups. Eighty percent of the world’s fisheries are at risk due to overfishing, and of these fisheries, 52% of them are completely exploited. This situation, if unresolved, could [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

An Ashoka Fellow in Spain uses local solutions to fight a global problem.

The Arab world is in an already arid climate, and desert land occupies most of the region. The effects of global climate change are exacerbating these existing environmental challenges, particularly because they are coupled with massive population growth in the region. Consequently, resources are strained to a near breaking point. [...]

The Syrian crisis is a disheartening story of forgotten refugees, lost supplies, and uncoordinated response efforts - and much of this tragedy can be explained by ineffective aid. Although $1.6 billion was spent, it is largely unknown where the money went and how it helped the situation. As one Turkish official [...]

As a land of transition between three continents, Turkey has critical natural and biological reserves at the global level, diverse species, and rich agro-environmental lands. Unfortunately, the rich abundance of the natural reserves is matched with an equally remarkable spectrum of environmental conflicts, such as land degradation, pollution, and extinction [...]

When a great idea from an innovator or intrapreneur inside a corporation, nonprofit or government fails to reach its potential, there can be soul searching or worse. Failing gracefully is an important skill for entrepreneurial minded employees, but if those failures were avoidable, why not skip the messiness? Here are [...]

Fundamentally changing the norms of any industry can be a daunting task, especially when businesses now face entrenched social problems – like the health of our environment. The business shifts necessary to survive sometimes seem impossible. To solve these problems, we’re seeing ground-breaking collaborations emerge – demonstrating what is possible [...]

Today, over 16% of the population of the European Union lives in poverty and does not have access to several essential products and services. But according to a recent European study from Accenture France, co-creation between the business and social sectors can enable the emergence of hybrid models that are [...]

"What stands in the way of climate action isn’t just political deadlock or financial conflicts of interest. Rather, my research suggests that many of the obstacles to—and opportunities for—climate action also turn on how we think and, perhaps more importantly, feel about the issue.

Cameron Parsons's insight:

The data surrounding the immediate dangers of climate change are overwhelming. Taking action to reverse course and convincing others to do the same may feel like an insurmountable task. So, how can we use empathy to change the discourse, manage emotions, and mitigate the climate threat?

As modern media outlets struggle with the uncertainty of journalism’s future, they should keep a close eye on social entrepreneurs who are pioneering new media models by reimagining the roles of the audience, the journalist, and the media enterprise. These leaders are responding to a reality in which citizen journalism [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

Technology has transformed the way we consume and create "news" over the course of the past decade. Read about three innovations in journalism that have the potential to revolutionize and redefine the industry for the modern era.

A few months ago I was speaking in front of a crowd of American undergraduate students about my work with the Student Language Exchange, discussing the power and benefit of learning a new language. They seemed moderately interested as I spoke, but in the reception following the event, a group [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

"Less than 20 percent of American adults speak a language other than English. Compare that to the more than 50 percent of Europeans who speak at least two languages.

The next generation of leaders is not equipped with the cultural and linguistic skills needed to succeed in an increasingly globalized economy. How can we build truly collaborative partnerships with our peers around the world if we wait for others to learn how to communicate with us? Are we undermining our own success if we don’t learn about the cultural norms of other societies?"

If social business is to solve many of the world’s most pressing problems, we have to make sure it has both internal and external accountability systems in place to do so. What does that mean? It means, at its heart, getting the accountability relationships right between the people who make decisions in order to ensure the outcomes are fair, inclusive, and sustainable."

Meet Andrew Slack, one of the newest Ashoka Fellows. Through his organization, The Harry Potter Alliance, Slack looks to meet young people where they are, using pop culture as the entry-point to create a new breed of activist.

“Learn to love complexity. Water touches everything, so you have to be fluent in many different disciplines,” offered Brett Walton, water reporter at Circle of Blue, when asked his advice for people interested in careers in water. Walton would know. He is part of a team of journalists and researchers at [...]

Cameron Parsons's insight:

Public-private partnerships are fueling change and innovation around the world. A look at some solutions to water depletion using innovative collaborations across sectors.

In 2010, when Shivani Siroya started developing an idea for a new microfinance model, predatory lending practices were changing the way people saw microfinance. Pioneer microfinance institutions like Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank were groundbreaking, high social impact endeavors, but in recent years some microlenders had started to use the practice [...]

In early 2011, the Bangalore city police took a bold step forward to shed the “inefficient government servants” tag and launch a Facebook page to try innovative techniques to handle the traffic woes, and reach out to the city’s youth. Today, with 147,005 likes, a new traffic app and a [...]

It is virtually impossible to find one person who can display all the requisite skills for effective leadership as a single founder. Cofounders can often split the workload in different ways—startups often have technical cofounders and business cofounders, businesses often have CEOs and COOs—and there are many variations. The bottom [...]

“Eating is a human activity which has an impact on health and well-being, as well as implications for purchasing, consumption and supply chains. What we purchase and consume and how it is supplied has, in turn, a global and environmental impact, either beneficial or not. The acts of buying, cooking [...]

We are entering an Age of Complexity characterized by intensified economic unpredictability, tectonic demographic and technological shifts, and accelerating resource scarcity. Adversity has become the New Normal. When you face adversity you either throw in the towel quickly or keep on fighting the issue. But what if you could transcend [...]

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